Here is an interesting article featuring the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch. It is interesting that the author refers to His Holiness as "Pope Zakka". Is that title used in Antioch? I have often thought that the Syriac Church must be the closest liturgically, etc., to that of the Apostles, because of the common language, culture, etc. Here's the article:

Keeper of The Word shares a fewPope Zakka speaks on preserving the ancient language of Aramaic in a new,modern world

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with spiritual leaders in theMiddle East by cultural historian Yvonne Seng.

By Yvonne SengSpecial to The Daily Star [Lebanon]Wednesday, June 02, 2004

CULTURAL HISTORY

DAMASCUS: With the recent release of the film, "The Passion of The Christ,"Aramaic has likely been heard by more people in the past months than in it'sentire history. Once the vernacular, it is now reduced to subtitles, spokendaily by a few. The man in front of me has a less brutal way of keeping thelanguage alive.

Patriarch Zakka sits in a gold encrusted chair in a fading cathedral in theOld Quarter of Damascus, but the power of this holy man is not contained ina chair. Or in his extensive title: His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka IIwas. The power of Pope Zakka rests in words.

Pope Zakka is the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and the Supreme Headof the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, the planet's second oldest church,founded by the Apostles.

As intriguing as the longevity of the institution, is its charge to keepalive Aramaic, the language in which Christ spoke. That is, the words inwhich The Word spoke.

Words have consequence, but few take words as seriously as Pope Zakka.

We all know one phrase in Aramaic: Abracadabra. Childish magical gibberishto the rest of us, loosely translated from Aramaic it has a vastly moreserious meaning: "Create what I speak, or, May my words be brought to life."These are not men who dangle their participles.

The church has come within a breath of extinction at least twice in its longhistory, and its survival is a miracle.

In the 6th century, following doctrinal splits in Christology, the churchwas down to three tattered bishops hiding underground from persecution.

Empress Theodora, daughter of a Syriac Christian priest and wife of theByzantine Justinian, intervened, giving the green light for Jacob (afterwhom the church is often mistakenly named) to establish missions and bishopsthroughout the East, into Arabia and Ethiopia.

In the early 21st century, the church and the language so intimately linkedto it again struggles to survive. This time it has found an oddly modernally; the internet.

"The most important thing is that Aramaic was spoken by Our Lord JesusChrist," the Patriarch says. "That's why we love it. It has been theliturgical language of our church from the beginning of Christianity and, ofcourse, it was the ancient language of Syria before Islam. That's also whywe love it. And we feel it is our duty and responsibility to keep it alivebecause we can't imagine that, one day, the language spoken by our LordJesus Christ will be forgotten. It's something we can't imagine."

Monks and holy scholars have kept the flame alive for almost 2,000 years,but can they survive the tornado of Western culture?

Syria has been isolated from much of the recent technology andcommunications boom and it is yet to be seen what will happen to theseprotected enclaves when exposed to global culture and technology.

I asked the Patriarch whether he fears this will be the final demise of TheWord of God?

The internet, with its disrespect for man-made borders, is his ally.

"Technology has always been with the human being," he states. " Those whobelieve the world was created by God, they will always be loving God throughOur Lord Jesus Christ."

With the help of technology - and the savvy leadership of the Patriarch -Aramaic is undergoing revival among members of the Syriac Orthodox Churchconnected across the globe and scholars attracted to its cerebral mission.

"We have many scholars here and there," the Patriarch says with enthusiasm."And they learn the language and they teach it and, of course, we are proudof those people, too. And grateful, too. Yes."

Although he admits he doesn't fully understand the new technology, PopeZakka visited Los Angeles to bless it.

The Syriac-Orthodox Church of Antioch, formed in the time of the Apostles,has its own website, with libraries, chatrooms, youth groups and CDs ofliturgical music for sale through Amazon.com.

Pope Zakka has his own page where you can access copies of his encyclicalsand writings. The Syriac-Aramaic language project has a worldwide centerthat the peripatetic Apostle Peter, first Bishop of the church, woulddefinitely approve of.

For the Patriarch also, globalization and technology are positivedevelopments.

When asked about the commercialization of the globe and the loss ofindividual identity, he shrugs it off. I'd forgotten that Syrians arehard-wired as world traders - just check out the chambers of commerce fromBuenos Aires to Brisbane. The first in formation highway was the famed SilkRoute which moved goods and ideas from one side of the known world to theother and terminated in Syria.

The Patriarch immediately identifies the positive and sellable side ofDamascus.

"We may not have McDonald's here," he says, "But we have much to offer. Thespirit. Nature. This city is a blessing of God. We call it the City of SaintPaul, of course, because when he came to Damascus, he had the experience ofthe faith."

Apostle Paul is instrumental in explaining the openness of the SyriacOrthodox Church toward technology and new ideas. The church was grafted fromJerusalem onto Antioch, the former capital of Eastern Rome (now Antakya insouth-eastern Turkey), by Aramean and Gentile converts among the local Greekpopulation. A simple and central act of the Antiochians inspired Paul in hiswritings on inclusiveness: converted Gentiles and Jews broke a pre-Christiantaboo by eating together at the same table.

The locals coined a new term for these peculiar church members -"Christian" - and thereby introduced a new word into the planet's lexicon.

Inclusiveness has contributed to the quiet survival of the church and thepreservation of the language. The Patriarch greets the advent of Westernizedculture with the same careful openness.

"We have Coca-Cola here, already," he continues on his discussion ofglobalization. He shrugs. "It is the same all over the world. If they don'thave Coca-Cola, for example, they have something similar to that. Peoplealways try to get the best."

He adds, quietly: "I think we don't have our lives in the bread. We have itin the spirit. That's something very important."

The Patriarch's concerns about the future are larger than fast food andWestern movies, or even about the continued existence of the Syriac OrthodoxChurch in Syria. His concern is for the continuation of the church on thisplanet.

"What does peace look like to you?" I ask the holy man in front of me.

Ceremonially poised until this question, he now slumps. He sighs deeply andgrinds his forehead with the foot of his palm.

"Ayyy. Peace, you ask?" he says, slowly. "Peace is a tired, old man."

His Holiness knows all about being tired. Even the boon of technology cannotreduce the weight of a long history.

"Let me say," the Patriarch continues after a sigh, "in my opinion, firstthere must be peace with God."

According to the Patriarch, peace between God and humankind has already beengiven through Christ.

Globalization, advances in science and technology, faster communications,these we chase after out of novelty and need. They will each impact ourpresent lives and the future of our planet in ways we are just beginning tounderstand, but they will not bring peace. As the Patriarch says: Peace is agiven. It is we humans who don't accept the gift.

Worship is theology, so a church which brings Evangelical and Charismatic "praise & worship" into its corporate life is no longer Orthodox. It is, by definition, heterodox. Those "Orthodox" leaders who make theological arguments for the incorporation of heteropraxis into the life of the Church are heretics.

I have never known the patriarch to use the title 'pope', and would say 'no'. Still, even a native Syrian can be wrong about such things. I myself would like to verify the matter one way or another.

It is an interesting question, because St. Peter was the first Patriarch of the Church of Antioch, and also the first Pope/Patriarch of Rome. I know that the title was used in our Alexandrian Church before it was used in Rome, but I am not sure about the titles in Antioch.

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Worship is theology, so a church which brings Evangelical and Charismatic "praise & worship" into its corporate life is no longer Orthodox. It is, by definition, heterodox. Those "Orthodox" leaders who make theological arguments for the incorporation of heteropraxis into the life of the Church are heretics.

I don't think the title "Pope" has ever been used by the Patriarchs of Antioch, but I could be wrong.

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"I prefer to be accused unjustly, for then I have nothing to reproach myself with, and joyfully offer this to the good Lord. Then I humble myself at the thought that I am indeed capable of doing the thing of which I have been accused. " - Saint

What is the status of the Aramaic language outside of the Church? Is there anywhere left where it is spoken colloquially, or is it now strictly a liturgical language?

On a related note, I have heard that there are still some villages in Upper Egypt in which Coptic is spoken, and also of course in the monasteries.

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Worship is theology, so a church which brings Evangelical and Charismatic "praise & worship" into its corporate life is no longer Orthodox. It is, by definition, heterodox. Those "Orthodox" leaders who make theological arguments for the incorporation of heteropraxis into the life of the Church are heretics.

Aramaic, which was dominant in the region whenJesus was alive, died out elsewhere many centuriesago. But in remote Maalula, time and geography haveconspired to keep it alive, and today this villageis the last place on Earth in which the languagespoken by Jesus is still the native tongue.

Wow, so Aramaic is now spoken only in this one little village of Maalula. I pray to God that the Syriac Church is able to keep the language alive. Right now, I am studying other languages, but some day I would like to study Aramaic as well. What of the other Syriac dialects? Aramaic is a Syriac dialect, no?

Logged

Worship is theology, so a church which brings Evangelical and Charismatic "praise & worship" into its corporate life is no longer Orthodox. It is, by definition, heterodox. Those "Orthodox" leaders who make theological arguments for the incorporation of heteropraxis into the life of the Church are heretics.

In any case Coca-cola is not the same everywhere, there do research to have flavors acceptable in different cultures.

What is that supposed to mean? I think you are misunderstanding the reference. His Holiness was talking about Westernization when speaking about Coca-Cola, not the Church.

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Worship is theology, so a church which brings Evangelical and Charismatic "praise & worship" into its corporate life is no longer Orthodox. It is, by definition, heterodox. Those "Orthodox" leaders who make theological arguments for the incorporation of heteropraxis into the life of the Church are heretics.

"Globalization thus proves to be a new vision for some and a new threat for others; a vision which promises much to a few and very little to many. " - Patriarch Bartholomew [Address given by All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the 1999 Annual Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum]

Wow, so Aramaic is now spoken only in this one little village of Maalula.

Actually, Aramaic is spoken in three villages in Syria. Different dialects of the language are also spoken in southeastern Turkey and elsewhere in the region. It also exists in various forms as a liturgical language, and not only within Christianity. A unique Eastern Aramaic dialect even exists as a liturgical language exclusively in the scriptures of what is perhaps the only present-day surviving Gnostic religion: the Mandaean sect.

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I pray to God that the Syriac Church is able to keep the language alive. Right now, I am studying other languages, but some day I would like to study Aramaic as well. What of the other Syriac dialects? Aramaic is a Syriac dialect, no?

It is the other way around, actually. Syriac is an Eastern dialect of Aramaic that traces its origins back to Edessa (it is probably the most formalised and standardised vis a vis grammar, its written form, and so on). I also understand that Syriac itself branches into Eastern and Western variants, which explains the difference in dialect that exists between the liturgies of the Assyrian Church and those of the Syrian and Maronite Churches.

"Globalization thus proves to be a new vision for some and a new threat for others; a vision which promises much to a few and very little to many. " - Patriarch Bartholomew [Address given by All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the 1999 Annual Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum]

Paul, I don't think that the Syriac Patriarch was promoting globalization, he was just acknowledging its presence in the Middle East, and that there may be some positive uses for it. I may be getting a wrong read on this, but it seems that you are looking for any reason to criticize him. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but based on your discourse with Thomas in the other thread, do you have an axe to grind with His Holiness because of the situation in India? Not trying to spark a debate, just asking for clarification.

SamB - Thanks for the information! I am fascinated by the pre-Islamic cultures of the Middle East.

Logged

Worship is theology, so a church which brings Evangelical and Charismatic "praise & worship" into its corporate life is no longer Orthodox. It is, by definition, heterodox. Those "Orthodox" leaders who make theological arguments for the incorporation of heteropraxis into the life of the Church are heretics.